26 a troop of cavalry would C0111C up and Lieutenant Dumestre would be finIshed in thirty minutes. . . . Keep them with him? Ho\v do that? Supposing they were all Vichy 111en r After all, they were being paid by Vichy and there were thousands of Frenchmen in Afri- ca who had staked their lives on a Ger- rnan victory. They'd shoot him in cold blood. Once 1110re he cursed the trick that had landed him at this n10ment among two hundred strangers. In his old corn- "- pany he would have been able to take Sergeant Goubille aside and talk honest- ly and get an honest answer. Sergeant Goubille was forty-five years old and there was sornething fatherly and tol- erant of young officers in his hearing and a man like that would be worth a man's life on this harsh and doubt- ful plain tonight. '''-ell, there was no Sergeant Goubille at hand. o. Perhaps that Breton, that farn1er, Boullard. He % .:: tìll , . ::; ';;: :. ' "}t'. ", '(:-':/;:/ :: r; )tìiiit ;'{!, ; ::; i Ø,)1 ':':::"'} H ,::::.-".." '. . ...... '" i :11 , ,:.., :..}WÅ,. .' iII . 'If"" ::> . _..,@ ,: @ j>, ,." ... :.... .;. , ; & :. . ":... :'.' . ..:.....;. :. :." ....;.::: ._:d , iW::/::::' \fi: {{;J. 1:: .t : .. :.. ,l... )tit 2i<l ; : :.E. *-"" .@ was an older man and he looked hon- est and pleasant. He took a deep breath and walked swiftly, not knowing exactly what he would do but knowing he had to do something, toward the forward gun. . . . He rubbed his heels back and forth, n1aking marks on the ground and study- ing them intently. "Kill the pretty Lieutenant," Boul- lard said, "and we have our own lives in our own hands. ',\1 e dispose of the111 as we see fit." "Let us look at it from the political angle," Labat said. "Politically, we are fried if the Germans win-" "Perhaps," Sergeant Fourier said un- easily, his voice full of the nagging pain of having to 111ake a decision. "Perhaps we ought to wait and see what hap- " pens. "\Ve will wait and see nursel yes buried," Boullard said. "At least," said Labat, "we ought to talk to the Lieutenant. Sound him out." "I was on the lVleuse," said Boullard. "I know better than to talk to a lieu- tenant. I'll take the responsibility. If you're all afraid. . . ." He looked around him with savage peasant conten1pt. "rrhere're a lot of men still to be killed in this war. I don't mind making it one Inore or less personally. . . ." "'Ve have to talk to him first," Labat said stubbornly. "'/Vhy? " Boullard asked loud- ly. "Maybe he's with us. lVlaybe he wants to fight with the Am- . " encans, too. . . . Boullard laughed harshly. 'rhen he spat. "I'm surrounded by children," he said. "If he's still an officer in the French i\rmy after two years, he is not fond of the Americans. I am. At this mornent I arn crazy about ..A.mericans. If there is any hope for anybody in this stinking year, it is in the Arnericans. I'm forty- four years old and I've fought in two wars. 1"'he third one, I want to pick rny own side." "Still," Labat said, his voice low and persistent, "still, we ought to talk to him." "F or rnyself," Corporal l\1il- ] et said briskly, standing up, "1 :lln on duty at the observa-" He let his hands fall gently to his sides as Boullard brought his rifle up and touched his chest lightly with the bayonet. "You are on duty here, Cor- poral." Boullard moved the bay- onet tenderly on a breast button. "There is a qutstion before the house that Inust be decided by a full membership." Corporal 1\;1 illet sat down carefully. "I don't cart," l.labat was U NDER the tarpaulin, Boullard was talking, his voice low and harsh, all the kindly old countryman's lines somehow vanished from the set, desperate face. "There wilJ be a token . " h . h resIstance, e was saYIng to t e men, who were all sitting up, looking at the ground most of the time, looking only occasionally at Boullard with a kind of deep embarrassment. "In a token re- sistance there are token deaths." He looked around hin1 calmly from face to face, his thought plain in his eye. "A token corpse feeds as l1lany worms as any other. . . ." ] ouvet, the young one, was the only one \v ho could not 111anage to sit still. J ;;.:::::: :::::;{.. fti; i , ' ff{ . " '> i' ;1 '_ :: l I.,. ; : . ilk t:t }: ;:: ...w.fM ..-:. . ".'.".. :'r;_::.. ..i':: _ :':::;iiJ .; ! , ^:;;yg;>^ : :' ;:î! ::; :p 1!".," ..._....<< ((Vilill it disturb you ladies if we just sit here and talk?"